Cardinals

Top 5 Cardinals Moments So Far This Year

Starting pitcher Marco Gonzales #56 of the St. Louis Cardinals delivers against the Colorado Rockies as he makes his Major League debut at Coors Field on June 25, 2014 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

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5) Marco Gonzales makes his debut: It’s tough to argue against this being one of the greater moments this season for the Cardinals – seeing their 2013 draft pick make his MLB debut one year later, and in his home turf. Gonzales, a Colorado native, didn’t have the best outing on his first major league start, allowing five runs and earning a 9 ERA. But he did get to strikeout one of the best hitters, Troy Tulowitzki, and start for the Cardinals in front of the team he grew up watching. The Cardinals won the game 9-6, Gonzales earned a no decision in the game but this will be something that lives on in his memories and the memories of Cardinals fans.

4) Adams & Wong back-to-back walk-off home runs: Walk-off home runs are one of the most exciting moments to witness in a baseball game. Now imagine that happening two nights in a row. The Cardinals, in a heated central division race, trying to move up in the division before the All-Star break, were in a 0-0 lock in their first of four against the Pirates. Until the ninth, when Matt Adams “Big City” stepped to the plate. Adams crushed the pitch out of Busch and sent Cardinals Nation home in a stir.

Not 24 hours later, the team was in another tie late in the ninth against the Pirates. Then Kolten Wong steps in. The unexpected hero cranked a 3-2 fastball to deep right field and sent the fans home with two consecutive walk-off home runs and 2 games out of first place.

3) Oscar Taveras’ debut: How about a player that fans have been begging for for the past few years. Cardinals GM John Mozeliak decided to call-up Oscar when the Cards were struggling for offense. After a long-awaited debut, Oscar was up in the big leagues and playing in his first MLB game. His first at-bat wasn’t what he had hoped. Taveras flew out to left-field for an out in the 2nd inning and fans were puzzled.

Then the second at bat, with rain starting to pour, Taveras hit a ball deep over Busch Stadium’s wall for his first career home run in the major leagues before the game went into rain delay.

Later he was sent back down to Memphis and then recalled before the All-Star break. Fans are expecting big things from Taveras but there’s no question that he put plenty of excitement in many fans’ hearts in his first MLB game.

2) Adam Wainwright throws a 1-hitter: Wainwright has impressed many in his time here in St. Louis. but he almost added another “first” to his list on a Tuesday night in May, a “no-hitter.” Waino was near perfect, leading his team to a 5-0 shutout win over the Diamondbacks. He retired the first 11 batters he faced, then a double off the center field wall put the first hit on the board for Arizona. After that hit, Wainwright retired 16 more D’Backs to end the game with just one hit, no walks and nine strikeouts. After the one-hitter, Wainwright raised his record to 7-2 and at the time and put the team 2 1/2 games behind first place.

1) Cardinals come back from 6-0, defeat Brewers 7-6: The best moment so far this year for the Cardinals has to be the biggest comeback this season against the first place Brewers. Milwaukee scored earlier, bringing across 6 runs in the first two innings against a struggling Cardinals team. That wouldn’t be enough for the Redbirds as they stormed back with four home runs, including a Matt Holliday, 9th inning, solo shot to put the cherry on top with a 7-6 lead.

Trevor Rosenthal then came in to shut-down the Brewers in the ninth to put his team withiin one game of first place, a spot the Brewers had held for 98 days. A seven-run comeback on the road was the best moment in the 2014 Cardinals season.